Bonspiel Creation

I've always had a 'no custom work' policy.  I made a bride's dress for a friend in the '90's, and after that I said to myself "never again".

By the time the dress was done we were no longer friends.  She was pregnant at the time and the hormones  *completely* changed her personality--she became super waffly and also really picky and nervous.  She knew exactly how she wanted the dress to look--she had a vision-- but had no way to explain it to me.   Also, every time she came for a fitting, her body had grown one or two inches.  It  turned out all right,  but she never paid me (I had asked for a token amount--the bulk of the service was her wedding gift from me)  and the friendship just fizzled after that.

I have made a few things for people since then, but the nervous perfectionism that I have when I'm specifically making something to someone's requirements made the process so unpleasant that I figured it wasn't worth it.  However, I'm starting to think that if I could get over what is obviously my own issue, I could really make very good money and also help make a lot of people's dreams come true.  We all love the idea of participating in a creative process--and having a craftsperson do your specific bidding is a delightfully old-fashioned concept that I can get behind.  I get so many requests for custom bags--probably three or four a week even though I say I don't do them.  They vary from just a simple 'will you ever make this exact bag again?' to "I have an old coat I want to send you and have you make me my dream bag".  Yikes!  So many things could go wrong.  But they could also go right.  And then I would get to use the word "bespoke" (even though I'm not quite sure what it means).

As for getting it right before passing into the afterlife, that doesn't fit with my belief system, so no pressure there.